1. Field
The exemplary embodiments relate to fiber scanning optical probes and medical imaging apparatuses including the same, and more particularly, to fiber optical probes for controlling light paths by deforming fibers and medical imaging apparatuses including the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the medical imaging field, demands are being made for a technique for obtaining surface information regarding a human body or skin tissues and obtaining tomography images of portions therebelow. Particularly, most cancers start below epithelial cells and spread into hypodermal cells where blood vessels are located. Therefore, if cancers can be found in early stages, damages due to cancers may be significantly reduced. Although tomography images may be obtained by using imaging techniques in the related art including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) imaging, or ultrasonography, it is difficult to detect small cancers in early stages therewith due to low resolutions of these imaging techniques. Meanwhile, unlike the techniques in the related art, recently introduced techniques including optical coherence tomography (OCT), optical coherence microscopy (OCM), and photoacoustic tomography (PAT) use lights. Therefore, skin penetrating depths of the above-stated recently introduced techniques are from about 1 mm to 2 mm (OCT) and from about 30 mm to about 50 mm (PAT), for example. However, resolutions of images obtained by using the above-stated techniques are about 10 times higher than the resolution of an image obtained by using ultrasonography. Therefore, the techniques are expected to be useful for finding cancers in early stages.
To apply such an optical medical imaging technique for diagnosis of an interior of a human body (e.g., an endoscope, a laparoscope, a surgery robot, etc.), it is necessary to receive light from a light source and transmit the light into a human body, and for this purpose, an optical probe may be used. An optical probe includes a series of optical lenses for focusing light at a particular distance and an optical scanning element for irradiating light to a particular region. The optical scanning element may control a path of light by changing a tilting angle of a reflective mirror, such as a micro-electro mechanical system (MEMS) mirror, or may control a path of light by physically deforming an optical fiber.